CONTEST FOR PARKWAYS CONTINUED 209 
passed one reading, was unsatisfactory to the Park Commis- 
sion, and that if passed and accepted in its present form, 
he would advise the commission to go into court to have 
certain restrictions relative to assessment and widening 
nullified as contrary to public policy. That he turned to 
Mr. Stetson and said: ‘You want a trolley on Central ave- 
nue, well, there can’t be a trolley there without widening 
the avenue, and we cannot widen the avenue without an 
Although under the resolution of the Park Commission of 
assessment.’ ” 
November 12, 1896, requesting the transfer of the avenues, 
for parkways, it was specifically made the duty of “the 
counsel to obtain, if possible,” such transfer from the free- 
holders and local governing bodies, no action on these and 
similar communications was taken by the commission. In- 
quiries and appeals were being continuously sent to ascer- 
tain just what the attitude of that board would be in view 
of the conflicting statements then current. Finally, at the 
Park Board meeting of March 4, 1898, a letter was received 
from Colonel E. H. Snyder, as president of the Orange City 
Council, asking the direct question as to the intention of 
the commission regarding the avenues. The following reply 
and authorized statement was the same day made public: 
PARK COMMISSION’S REPLY. 
“The Park Commission does not intend to widen Park 
or Central avenue in the city of Orange, and is advised that 
the transfer of the care, custody, and control of those ave- 
nues does not confer upon the commission the power to 
widen them. It follows, therefore, that the Park Commis- 
sion cannot make assessment on abutting property.” 
To many of the active supporters of the park movement 
and those having confidence in the commissioners rather 
than in the confusing and contradictory statements to the 
contrary accredited their own counsel, this concise promise 
of intention was accepted as made in good faith and ap- 
peared to settle the question on the points indicated. To 
